Read World Without End by Ken Follet if you really want to read a good, no not good, but great book book about the plague. They were stacking the bodies and burning them. People died by the thousands.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5064.World_Without_End


World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroads of new ideas—about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race—the Black Death. (less)

I know he's as liberal as you can get, but I've been in love with Steven King since before I knew what politics were. I've read every book he has ever written and will continue to do so politics be damned. He's the greatest writer of our times. It's worth noting that The Stand is only a very minor piece in an elaborate mosaic - his opus if you will that King painted around a multi-universe he took 30 years to create and release with the Gunslinger series. Most of his books from the mid 70's thru the early 2000's are in some way linked to this multiverse. Each one can be read separately, but it's only when you read them all that you see the genius of that crazy man's mind. I mean that brilliant mind even came up with the concept of their being a space (he calls it todash) between the universes and from it comes many nasty things such as the monsters in The Mist and Pennywise himself from IT.

Earl

I’ve got almost everything that Stephen King has ever written, don’t like his politics, but the man can write.

King was one of my favorite authors as well. I have read most all of his work. After his near fatal accident, his writing was much different, so much so that I believe it was a different writer than King. A short time later King novels were appearing under a different author in the same way Tom Clancy novels were continued.

The Stand is still my favorite Stephen King book of all time.

If you like this type of book (deadly virus/post- apocalyptic) , I highly recommend The Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin as well.

I think Tommyknockers was my favorite... but its a challenge to distinguish.